Arts + travel

Eyewear material inspires limited edition furnishings for the home

A new exhibition by Italian designer Giovanni Botticelli explores a classic Italian eyewear material by the well-known company Mazzucchelli in the design of objects for the home.

By revisiting a material he knows well, cellulose acetate, the designer combines concepts, design, and formal purity with focus on welding and bending techniques. He mixes two or more colours by joining acetate slabs through compressed acetone. Thermal bending is the technique commonly used for curved-front eyewear. The colour palette also draws on independent eyewear design, with chic clean contrasts between tan, transparent monochromes, and opaline hues.

The installation resulting from this in-depth investigation is presented as a scaled transposition of architecture’s typical expressions and forms, suggesting correspondences between essential style codes and pure geometric shapes. Displayed in the gallery are wall bookcases, tables, and boxes — furnishings conceived as places where memories dwell, places meant to safeguard the precious memory of our things.

In Botticelli’s collection, the absolute precision of design meets experimentation to raise the material’s creative potential. The HABITAT collection was designed exclusively for SWING Design Gallery and produced in a limited and numbered edition.

The design project is supported by Mazzucchelli 1849 (www.mazzucchelli1849.it), the historic company in Castiglione Olona founded in 1849 as a small factory for the production of horn and bone combs and buttons. It went on to become a world leader in the production and distribution of cellulose acetate.

About Giovanni Botticelli

Giovanni Botticelli was born in Rome in 1987. He studied Product Design at IED Rome (European Design Institute) from 2006 to 2009, focusing on eyewear design and the craft and industrial processing of ceramics, glass and sheet metal. He expanded his technical expertise through training at ENSA Limoges and Abate Zanetti Murano. Since 2009, he has worked with companies throughout Italy, designing and overseeing the production of eyewear and sunglasses for Mondelliani and other brands exhibiting at international fairs. In 2010, his design for the Oled lighting systems for PPML was chosen for the ADI Codex Lazio publication and won the competition put on by Alstom in collaboration with IED. After his thesis project, he developed products for DMG Spa’s collaborations with Schindler Group and Otis Elevator Company. In 2016, he took part in the Salone Satellite in Milan and started to work at IED as an assistant and teacher. For further details: www.swingdesigngallery.it / www.giovannibotticelli.eu CN

The exhibition is open until 31 July 2019 in Benevento, Italy. Photography by Danilo Donzelli – www.danilodonzelli.com.

Glamorous girls and glasses by Anna-Karin Karlsson sparkled at The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, celebrated in California. Rock, hiphop, indie, pop, electronic dance, continuous live music, sculptures and art – Coachella has it all. The showcase for musical artists is also a style show with photo-op outfits that often launch new trends. Fun, fashion and frolic highlighted the festival visit for Marie Rosell from the AKK Team and her friend Sofia Sandelius. “It was so much fun,” said Marie, and the girls looked ravishing in their luxurious sun specs by Anna-Karin Karlsson. Marie wears Half Moon (top image) in Japanese titanium plated with Rose Gold, and adorned with hand set crystals.

Anna-Karin’s elegant, sleek adaptation of the aviator shape is worn by Sonia (left above image) enhanced with a graceful butterfly at the nose bridge, and a linear brow bar, all crafted in Japanese titanium, with Carl Zeiss sun lenses. Visit www.annakarinkarlsson.com to see more captivating designs for cruising or city life, beaches or boulevards, and fun festivals! JG

The Barbados brand by Alicia Hartman, Peoples from Barbados joined sustainably sourced leather accessories label Far From Lost this weekend for a London Fashion Week event at the prestigious Sanderson hotel. The evening was co-hosted by Geoff K. Cooper and Chimere Cisse. Above: dinner guests / London Fashion Week Men’s (#LFWM).

Peoples from Barbados, created and designed by optical entrepreneur Alicia Hartman, was launched in 2018. The brand is committed to producing high-quality designs (made in Japan) with unique patterns and colorations and exceptional technical details that ensure a longer lifetime. The sunglasses are available in leading fashion and optical stores in New York, London, Barbados and Jamaica.

Far from Lost sources the world’s finest remnant leather – before it is discarded – to create limited edition wallets by hand. Set up by Michael Menninger, the label’s luxurious, sustainable designs are made by Mark Hanks using traditional artisan leatherwork techniques. Far From Lost has its headquarters in San Francisco. For more information about both collections and to purchase directly from them online, visit www.peoplesfrombarbados.com / www.wearefarfromlost.com CN

An exhibition of char-coaled wood pieces by leading contemporary artists and designers, London

As part of the acclaimed London Craft Week, a festival of design, artisan craft, arts and fashion, Scorched is a new exhibition showing at the beautiful Fitzrovia Chapel in London. “My ambition is to create a densely forested installation that will silhouette against the highly figured marble and gold mosaic of the Fitzrovia Chapel”, explains gallery owner Sarah Myerscough. The display shows a collection of hand-crafted scorched objects and unique furniture pieces using traditional wood working processes, celebrating the wood material and its significance in the world of craft, art and design.

“My aim is for the intrinsic and modest beauty of wood to truly shine when juxtaposed with this decadent chapel interior. The organic and imperfect against the refined and geometric, the prosaic as opposed to the rarified and the matt black against the gold, one absorbing light and the other reflecting it.”

The Sarah Myerscough Gallery has long been aesthetically connected to the traditional Japanese charred wood process of Shou-Sugi-Ban. The exhibition offers an inspiring opportunity to investigate this process from a western perspective, with artists featuring who have already considered the process of scorching in practice.

The 17 featured makers are: Max Bainbridge, Eleanor Lakelin, Sebastian Cox, Alison Crowther, David Gates and Helen Carnac, Christophe Kurtz, John Makepeace, Malcolm Martin and Gaynor Dowling, Gareth Neal, Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley, Benjamin Planitzer, Wycliffe Stutchbury, Julian WAtts and Nic Webb. Prices range from £1,800 to £22,400. Fitzrovia Chapel, 2 Pearson Square, W1T 3BF

Photography above by Dan Weill London – www.danweillphotography.co.uk. For more details about London Craft Week which continues through to 12th May 2019 across London, visit www.londoncraftweek.com CN